December 20, 2010

Good Afternoon,
  Great job on Day 1 of the Secret Pal activity.  Remember tomorrow is the day to bring in a snack and Wednesday is the wrapped book.  Tomorrow we will be finishing our read-a-loud Matilda.  On Wednesday, I would like to show the movie of the story to the class.  After watching the movie we would use a Venn Diagram to compare the similarities and differences of the book and movie.  Below is a review of the movie.  If you have any objections or concerns with this, please let me know by tomorrow.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Matilda was written by M. Faust

Parents need to know that this often surreal family movie based on the book by Roald Dahl includes a lot of cartoonish violence, nearly all of it perpetrated by a bullying school principal. Children who displease the evil principal are put in "the pokey," a dark closet lined with nails and broken glass. When Matilda's parents aren't neglecting her, they're berating her ... so she decides to punish them. But she also stands up for the principal's victims. The film explores themes of youthful independence and personal identity.

Families Can Talk About

Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help

• Families can talk about movies based on books. After seeing the movie, are you curious to read the book? Or did reading the book make you curious to see the movie? What makes a movie a "good" or "bad" adaptation of a book?
• Is Matilda a good role model? What about the other characters?

*There is reading homework this week.

I hope you all have a great break, safe travels, and a wonderful New Year.

Peace,

Tom

December 17, 2010

Good Morning,
  Although I will be in this morning to see the play, I will be out of school today.  I am using a personal day to take my dog to the vet and my basketball team to a weekend tournament in NY.  Nothing like chaperoning 30 high school boys for a weekend.  Actually, I am looking forward to the trip.

  Mrs. Marble will be the substitute today.  She is a certified teacher and I have been impressed with her work at our school this year.  Today the students will be asked to finish up a variety of work from the week.

  PLEASE remember that the Secret Pal items are due Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.  I hope the elimination of math homework this week has allowed time for your child to work on his/her card.

  Our class ended up finishing in 2nd place for the light competition.  We won $500 for our efforts.  I am hoping to use this money to buy more chapter books.

 I hope you have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tom

December 15th, 2010

Happy Pajama Day!  Most of the students really seemed to enjoy the idea and took pleasure in wearing their pajamas to school.  The VG provided a morning snack for our participation.  Today we had music, health, science, stations, and math.  We have finished our magnet unit and have started our study of sound. This unit will run through mid January.

Please remember that your child's Secret pal items are due next week.  It is important that the card is brought in on Monday, the snack on Tuesday, and the wrapped book on Wednesday.  Although next week will be a short week, we will be treating it as a regular academic period.  On Wednesday, the students will take the Unit 3 math test.

*Tonight you will find a sheet asking you to help your child identify 4-8 traditions that your family has during this time of year.  Please help them fill this out and return it tomorrow.  We will be using this information for a writing project (this goes with our Social Studies theme).

Have a great week.
Peace,
Tom

December 13, 2010

Good Afternoon Friends,
  Kind of a dreary day.  The kids had indoor recess with Mrs. Drysdale.  This morning we talked about the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania and its annual chocolate month celebration.  This afternoon we had math and library.

Homework:  There will be reading homework this week and next.  I am not assigning math homework but instead am asking that you have your child focus on the Secret Pal card that is due next Monday.

There is an assembly this Friday.  We have several class members that will be involved in the performance.

FINALLY, we have won another prize in this year's Valley Chamber Light competition.  The mixer is this Wednesday from 5:30-7:30 at the Timbers in Warren.  The prizes will be handed out around 6:15.  We need someone there to accept the prize for the class.  Is there anyone that is interested and/or able to attend?  Please let me know by tomorrow.

Peace,
Tom

December 10, 2010

Good Afternoon!  We started the day with our regular Morning Meeting.  During the meeting, Jacob shared a book that he wrote.  It was about an amazing truck that even had a snack bar in it.  A few of the kids were so excited about it, they asked if they could ride in it.  After meeting, we finished our Weekly News, met with our literature groups, and continued working on our city blocks.  During math we looked at counting groups and patterns within those groups.

During lunch Ms. Fair and I met with the whole class.  It was nice to eat lunch together in our classroom.  Today's focus was talking about recess and the things that make us feel good about it and the things that frustrate us as well.  It was a great discussion that will be picked up again at a later date (I am thinking once a month).  The information that I am getting from this will be used for modeling and role-playing during our morning meeting.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Peace,

Tom

December 8, 2010

Good Morning,
  We had a whirl wind of a day today.  We started with our meeting and then went right to music.  After that, we had health class.  We will have health class on Wednesday mornings until the engineering presentations are finished.  If you volunteer on Wednesdays, we won't start stations until 9:45 (through the 1st week in January).  The students also worked on their station activities and spelling words.

  I hope you have a great day.

Peace,
Tom

December 6, 2010

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.  It is amazing how busy they are this time of year, and how fast they go by.  This morning we had our meeting and the students shared your Weekly News responses.  We also played a game called A Cold Wind Blows (rather appropriate).  The students also had gym and stations.  During stations, the kids worked on their literature circle jobs, finished their snowman poem activity, continued their decorations for the Holly-Day competition, and met with me for reading.  This afternoon we had math and library.

*Today your child will bring home a paper with his or her Secret Pal on it.  Please keep this in a safe spot.  If you checked that you needed supplies for cards, I will send them home on Wednesday.  Remind your child that this is a "game" and he/she should keep the identity of their pal a secret.

*Remember that Wednesday is an Early Release day.

*There is math and reading homework this week.  Some of the kids will have homework that focuses on even and odd numbers.  Please note the added directions to the sheet.  This is one way to make the game more challenging.

*We have three new members of the 100 Book Club.  Below is a picture of all of the members so far.

I hope you have a great week.
Peace,
Tom

December 3, 2010

Good Afternoon,
  Today we traveled to the state of Pennsylvania.  We read the story If You Want to Find Golden, by Eileen Spinelli.  This was a story about a child noticing the many colors of a city and what the colors can be associated with.  After reading the story many of the children chose to build their own city (using all of the little boxes that we collected earlier in the year).  The kids will continue working on these next week.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Hubbard's class once again joined us as we tested the strength of a variety of magnets.  The students were then asked to draw conclusion from their results.  Most of the kids needed an extra day to finish this rather challenging task.

  During today's assembly, a team of parents discussed the idea of engineering and the activities that will soon be available to the students of our school.  One of the choices is a Lego League for the younger kids.  Each of the students wrote about this in their Weekly News.  See if your child is interested in signing up.  If so, ask Connie for a form and return it by next Tuesday.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I will be traveling with my team to the town of Hazen tomorrow morning.  I can't wait for that early morning bus ride :).

Peace,
Tom

December 1, 2010

Good Afternoon,
  A very quick post today.  It is a bit busy and crazy today.  This morning we had our meeting, had music class, stations and spelling.  The kids have been working with a snowman poem, and today they sorted the poem's words by different parts of speech.  This afternoon we continued working on addition and subtraction number stories.  Unfortunately in was another inside recess day.

*Assembly on Friday
*I am looking for green, white, and red, lights for the classroom.  We are again entering the rotary light competition.  The theme is Holly-Days.  If you have any lights that can be donated, I would appreciate the gift.  I would like them by this Friday.

Have a great day.
Tom